Kids these days...

We are our parents' children. In my last post, I implied that the reason Generation Y is the entitled generation is because our parents have made us so. I generalize of course. Our personalities and tendencies are not entirely attributable to our parents; the ol' nature vs. nurture debate and all that. So scratch that. But it is hard to say that we are not products of our environments. We behave as badly as those with whom we keep society will allow and for the most part of our development, our parents are our primary influence.

It is a parent's job to establish and maintain moral and behavioural guidelines and boundaries for their kids. Part of the maturing process is struggling against those confines; breaking the rules, pushing the boundaries. To some extent, I would encourage this. Afterall, parents don't always know best. But for the most part, we rely on our parents to be our compass. We look to them to show us how to behave. Howbeit our parents are not perfect, so neither are we. But that's okay!

Alas, even as one of them, I must agree with the generalization that this generation has its' full share of brats. But if we're the brats, our parents are the enablers. It's no surprise to anyone, I don't think, that today's parents seem more concerned with being their kid's buddy, than that they've broken a rule and misbehaved. Parents want to be Loooooooved! They don't feel like they really knew their parents, or that their parents ever really loved them enough, and dammit if they're going to let their kids feel the same. And so they spoil and call it love. Some are even proud of their spoiling and with that, I want to show them a dictionary (to spoil: To damage irreparably; ruin). Nothing to be proud of.

Moreover, it is the manifestation of their guilt. Both parents likely have careers. They work long hours outside the home and perhaps feel like they're not giving as much time to their families as they'd like. So following through on consequences when their teen skips school or doesn't take the garbage out, well, that's just not really fair is it? I mean, they're a good kid, right? "He's just acting out. If I wasn't working until 7pm every night, Johnny would feel as loved as he deserves and wouldn't cut class." Oh yes, it's all very well documented behavioural psychology. Society has given kids a new lexicon with which to manipulate their parents' guilt to their own ends. We make a lot of excuses for them.

So when do we smarten up? As the next generation of parents, how do we fare? Worse? As we delay starting families for decades, and become even more unwilling to sacrifice our own selfish lives, do we become even more thoroughly out-of-touch parents than even our parents were? I really don't know how we're going to do. Today's babies will never know anything as archaic as telephones with cords attaching them to the wall, or a world without Google. As kids the worst we had it was Ronald McDonald enticing us to eat Happy Meals, but today's children are bombarded with media telling them what to eat, wear, think, do, love, hate... as parents, do we even have a chance?

These are the things I think about as I contemplate how ready I might be to give it a go. It's terrifying. I only hope when the time comes, I'll be strong enough in my convictions and confident enough in my choices, that I will be the parent my children require of me. Not their friend, their parent.